RB Leipzig 2-1 Man City: Goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Andre Silva
The lads left at home with their feet up had a good night. Bernardo Silva, Rodri and Aymeric Laporte in town; Joao Cancelo in the suburbs. Fancy becoming better footballers while watching the tele in your living room. Must be nice.
This did not have to be a pointless exercise for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola won’t have planned for that eventuality but that is what it appeared on the surface. A meaningless defeat behind closed doors. Move on quickly.
But that is not quite the story and perhaps this all told Guardiola a little bit extra about his players. Notably, the application of some. Kyle Walker’s ridiculous red card, a petulant kick at Andre Silva, capped off the night – further compounded by injuries to Phil Foden and Nathan Ake.
RB Leipzig beat Manchester City 2-1 in their final group game on Tuesday evening
And with that, the man who insists he does not have favoured XIs might well stick to one in the coming weeks – and it may not include a few of the stellar names on display in Leipzig.
Leggy without Silva. Weaker security without Rodri. Porous without Laporte. Unimaginative without Cancelo. All of them will be back in against Wolves at the weekend if available.
Manchester City went down to 10-men after Kyle Walker (middle) kicked Andre Silva
Walker will now miss Manchester City’s next knockout game after kicking out at Silva
The result mattered not – City had already topped the group and are looking ahead to the Champions League knockouts in February, albeit without Walker – but the performance was less than good. The two goals that RB Leipzig managed, from Dominik Szoboszlai and Andre Silva, were in part thanks to defensive mishaps, positioning or otherwise.
The real tragedy was that, given the display, Guardiola opted against using any of his five academy products on the bench until the final three minutes when Cole Palmer emerged. He replaced Kevin De Bruyne, guilty of forcing things on too many occasions as he strives for rhythm.
Guardiola claimed their second-half display was far better, although it cannot have been any worse than what had gone before. City were dozy on a night when a few selected were given the chance to put pressure on those rested. With a string of decent saves, Zack Steffen was the only starter to remind Guardiola where he is and, well, that just isn’t happening, is it?
Steffen could do nothing about Leipzig’s opener, scored by young Hungary international Szoboszlai after 24 minutes. City were split in two by Konrad Laimer’s inventive pass with the outside of his boot, Szoboszlai making the most out of vast expanse between Walker and John Stones to round the goalkeeper.
Either side of that, Steffen kept them in it. The repelling of Andre Silva’s header from six yards – a move that was engineered after Ilkay Gundogan ceded possession inside his own half – was the pick of the bunch. Steffen stood tall when the Portuguese appeared set to double the lead.
Gundogan, meanwhile, looked like somebody who could have benefited from a staycation. Guardiola maintained that the German needed minutes because he didn’t play at Aston Villa last week.
Laimer had earlier almost squeezed an effort inside the near post, only for Ederson’s understudy to smartly dive down, while Steffen also managed to thwart Emil Forsberg when his defenders were once again opened up by the impressive Laimer.
Kevin De Bruyne was guilty of forcing things on too many occasions as he strives for rhythm
Meanwhile, Zack Steffen made a string of brilliant saves to keep Manchester City in the game
As always, there were chances for the visitors – Ake ballooned a header over, Lukas Klostermann threw himself in front of Jack Grealish and Foden struck a post on the break via a sprawling Peter Gulacsi save – but that familiar dominance lacked. Sluggish in midfield and passive on the ball.
Only back last week, Foden was removed as a precaution after struggling with his ankle and Raheem Sterling’s introduction did liven the Premier League leaders up. His willingness to get round the back of Leipzig gave them more of an edge and, he ought to have been given a penalty when bundled over in the box.
‘We had problems and they have a really good team,’ Guardiola said. ‘The second half was much, much better but unfortunately we made one or two mistakes and they punished us.’
Dominik Szoboszlai managed to score the first past Steffen in the 24th minute of the game
Andre Silva then drilled a 71st-minute second beyond the goalkeeper to make it two
Andre Silva had drilled a 71st-minute second beyond Steffen by that point, Leipzig pouncing on poor play by Stones to work the ball across to their summer signing from Frankfurt, one whom City had a brief look at themselves.
City did source an unlikely route back into the game when Oleksandr Zinchenko made a rare wide foray into the final third, whipping a super cross for a stooping Riyad Mahrez to head past Gulacsi with 14 minutes left.
Grealish went close again but then Walker’s head went, needlessly hacking at Leipzig’s second goalscorer. He didn’t make much contact but trudged off without complaint and now has at least one night off of his own when City attempt to progress into the quarter finals. It might even be more by the time UEFA have a proper look at the incident. A shambolic yet fitting end.
Check out all the live action as it happened below:
